TheCable

The League Management Company (LMC) has confirmed paying all the 20 clubs that participated in the recently concluded Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) season 2013/14.

Salihu Abubakar, the chief operating officer of the LMC, revealed that remittance of the N75m set aside for the season’s Merit Award and television coverage incentive to the clubs has been done.

“Payment to the clubs was approved by the LMC Management during the last week and we have made the remittance to the clubs’ bank accounts based on their standing on the league table with Kano Pillars earning the highest amount of N15m while the lowest earning of N1.5m was by Nembe City,” he told  www.lmc-ng.org.

The merit award represents cash earnings shared to the 20 clubs in the NPFL relative to their placing on the final league table ratified by the league body.

Nduka Irabor, LMC chairman, had last week announced the new award value which meant clubs earned 50% higher than what was paid for particular positions on the table.

On television coverage incentive, Abubakar said it was also introduced at the start of the season to encourage clubs activate programmes that will draw fans to the stadium and build good spectacle and television friendly ambience during live broadcasts.

“The television broadcast incentive seeks to support clubs increase match attendance through fan activation programs that will create the right football spectacle on live broadcast match days. It was also meant to discourage the hostile reception to broadcast partners by the home teams,” Abubakar said.

The LMC also said revenue distribution amongst clubs would continue to increase as the league continues to enjoy friction free and stable seasons and described the 2013/14 season as relatively stable compared to the previous season that was bedevilled by fixture disruptions.